Vegetarian Chili Recipe

I love German food. It’s one of my favorite parts about living abroad. However, there are times when I need a break from the meat and fried potatoes. In the summer, it’s easy enough to whip up a salad and claim I’m “healthy.” But once the weather gets cold, I want something hot to eat.

The problem is that I’m also feeding a man whose diet consists almost entirely of meat and he needs a meal that will fill all 6’4” of him. So I ventured into the impossible- find a hot meal, filled with veggies that’s also protein rich and delicious. Bonus points if it includes chocolate.

So I began experimenting and eventually came up with the vegetarian chili recipe below. It’s delicious AND it gives you a chance to claim that you have a “secret ingredient” (spoiler: chocolate) which I’ve always considered the mark of a great cook. It’s the reason I’ve been ruining otherwise good meals by adding cinnamon for the past 2 years (mostly a terrible idea).

Preparation

In a heavy pot (I used my enamel Dutch oven), heat olive oil and add chopped onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent. Then add tomato paste, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Once the spices are fragrant (less than 1 minute), add sweet potatoes and carrots and mix until coated in spices.

Allow potatoes and carrots to cook until they start to get tender. If your pan gets hot and you’re worried about burning, you can add a couple of tablespoons of chicken broth to the pan and lower the heat.